Brother_Bliss

Yes. I don't think that is even an option now. I believe Blog Entries can be 1) Public, or 2) Select members can be invited to view.

Oh I see this all the time myself among certain individual brothers or sisters in my congregation. Whenever a past president uttered the words "peace and security" there was bound to be somebody getting all excited and giddy. Even online, some brothers and sisters will start circulating or posting a video clip of that political figure trying the words, complete with a scriptural reference and some dramatic music. I should have saved them, as it would be fun to show them off right now. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden - I think they've all said it. I fathom this happens in other countries as well. What we do know according to the apostle Paul is that we 'will not be in darkness' and that it won't 'overtake us like thieves' of we have spiritual insight (1 Thess 5:4). In other words, the declaration of "peace and security" that we are waiting for will be blaringly obvious to us. It'll be unlike any one-off reference like before. When we hear the term "a declaration of peace and security" we immediately think of a single event, major act, and so we've often interpreted this to mean all the nations (or "all" the nations as represented by the UN) declaring some sort of victory. "Look, we've achieved peace!". And maybe that's true. It will be false, but that won't stop it from being "declared". But there Bible doesn't exactly say there will be a "declaration of peace and security". Paul says "whenever it is they are saying..." which is an action in progress, not complete. That's why I personally speculate that it will be something said and repeated constantly, maybe even daily for weeks or months. It might be a campaign or an effort being championed to hopefully bring "peace and security" as the end result. It has to be loud and obvious (and maybe repetitive) if we are not going"to be in darkness" about it. We will understand what's really happening. The world on the other hand will be sucking up the propaganda and falling for it. However this prophecy is fulfilled is fine with me. But yes when I see a president utter the words "peace and security" and then watch a particular brother or sister get all giddy giddy, I try to remind them to not get too excited just yet, but commend them for keeping on the watch.

So, Status Updates will be going away entirely. The core software does away with them in Version 5. However, this one developer has written an application to bring the functionality back, if we wanted it that badly... https://ipsappzone.com/file/47-ustatus/

Tell that to the branch. You know we're ripping off the color scheme from their JW Library app, right?

So far... I have a private Demo site. Upgrading that went smooth. That is where I have been playing around with the new design options and Admin area. Last night I upgraded my personal community. It did not go so smooth. Sections of the site were down for a couple hours while I worked out the bugs - most of which were in the Pages/Articles section. I use the same 3rd Party Pages Plug-in on my site as do the admins here on this one, which is not compatible with v5. I had to manually revert all the pages back to the default display, and delete the templates for the 3rd party plug-in - something I will have to do ahead of time when we move forward with upgrading here.

IPS removed Gravatar support years and years ago. It would take a 3rd party plugin application to possibly bring it back. There are some coders that would probably take on the job. If you Mouse-Over the green checkmark, the pop-up will say "Solved". Bascially the checkmark means that the topic was marked with a solution.

Unfortunately, social media introduced this idea of deleting posts. On social media, where the posted content revolves around "Me", this makes sense. But on forums like ours, the posted content revolves around the *topic* and the community as a whole. We have had people that contributed thousands of posts, and then suddenly wanted to rage-quit the community and demand all their posts be taken down. Sorry, that's not happening. The discussions/conversations would make little sense if that were possible. You have a 15 minute edit window. After that, we are usually happy to accept reasonable requests to Edit a post, such as to remove names, delete a selfie or photo of someone else who didn't like that you uploaded their pic, and more.

It's out now. But before we upgrade JWTalk to IPS 5.0 (currently we're on 4.7) we are waiting for more bugs to be ironed out. A new version of software is typically rebuilt from the ground up, and the early releases will have some issues. They are already pushing 5.0.4 <- that's 4 updates so far to fix bugs. Then, JWTalk currently utilizes a lot of 3rd party add-ons. Many of these add-ons haven't been rewritten by the authors to be compatible with 5.0 yet. Upgrading means we would lose... Tapatalk (a mobile app, that we will likely drop because they haven't made a version that works with 5.0). Back to Top (puts the little arrow in the bottom right corner) Bookmarks (let members save and categorize posts) Auto-Welcome (sends new registrants a PM automatically welcoming them and giving them some tips and info) Files Tab on User Profile (shows which files that person uploaded to the Library) ... which honestly, nobody probably cares about except for the few that utilize Bookmarks. Status Updates have also been deprecated, but some 3rd party's have released apps to preserve that functionality. This and any remaining add-ons that we want to keep using will need to be purchased again, since they all have to be rewritten for 5.0

The default will probably just be an admin decision. And then each user will be able to customize their own view in the Account Settings. The sidebar panel vs traditional header can be a theme difference...

We can create unlimited themes, lol. To date, I've been the only one working on themes. I've made the default one, and then made a "dark mode" theme as well. When we move to v5, we will decide on what we want to be the default. Naturally, there will be those who are not ecstatic about the design changes, so we can also create something that looks similar to what we have been using here over the last several years.

The side panel navigation vs traditional header is fixed on a per theme basis. Of course, we can created multiple themes and allow users to choose.

Bro, I threw this together in like 5 minutes, lol. We're a long way from migrating to it. The colors we use here are the same colors from the JW Library app. Yes, if we choose "Feed View" like in those screen caps, or the "Card/Grid View" which you can select now at the top of the index page, then we will need some artwork to represent each forum. I have to see if v5 lets members choose their own display/view like we can here on v4.

Here's a video that talks about the redesign and new features coming to version 5 (IF we were to use them)... Some things that I personally like.... 1) Left navigation panel. 2) Feed view. My sceenshots show feed view. The index page shows the main top level forums in each category on the left. And then a snippet of the 5 most recent posts in that forum (and it's subforums) on the right. 3) Pinning the first post to the top of each page. Some things I am on the fence about.... 4) Condensed Member panel across the top, like on mobile, vs the large left pane user panel on each post. Here is what we use now... Vs. the new option coming in v5... The 2nd pic shows how you can open the users stats with a click of a drop down arrow.

Which is exactly why I like the left navigation panel. The other sections of the side might get used more. But as it is, they are buried under the drop down menus in the masthead and like you said, people don't know they exist. Of course, the classic looks are still available....

Do you mean emojis to use in the editor. Or are you referring to "Reactions" at the bottom right of each post?

The Unread Content link will become a button next to your username. The Mark Site Read link will move to the dropdown menu under your username.

Here's what I came up with....

I've downloaded the latest software and have been toying around with it. Here's one idea I came up with while trying to maintain the same color scheme...

We have a Dark Theme that you can use. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and look for "Theme". We will be upgrading to v5. Currently, I am waiting to see more of the bugs get worked out. Plus we rely a lot on 3rd party plugins. We have to see when and if they will be updated, and buy new licenses for each of them.

No. That's only available on certain Cloud plans. JWTalk is actually hosted on a server owned by a brother, with a self-hosted "Community Classic" license. If we hosted on one of Invision's Cloud plans, the expenses would be considerably more exorbitant.

Our software, called Invision, is ever moving forward, and just had a major release that we haven't installed yet. It's chock full of new features and design changes. However, one of the problems with upgrading is that some 3rd party applications may not have been updated to be compatible with the latest software release. One 3rd party app that we use is Tapatalk. However, if you look at the Tapatalk Support Forums, they look pretty dead. Low activity, and very little response. Here is a post I made on February 19th that nobody has bothered to answer as of yet... https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tapatalksupport/any-plans-to-bring-tapatalk-to-invision-community--t48151.html#p260559 Scrolling around over there reveals some interesting drama over the last few years that I was unaware of. It appears that Tapatalk sold themselves to another company. That company didn't do jack-diddly with the product and ran it into the ground. Then the original authors bought it back. But then, a company that owned like 1500+ forums stopped using Tapatalk in favor of their own in-house app, seriously hitting them financially. Now the place looks like a ghosttown. We will eventually have to make the decision to move forward with our upgrade. It isn't imperative at the moment. But we can't stay on old software and deprive ourselves of security patches, bug fixes, and advancing features because Tapatalk is going belly up.

Hmmm... Topics are supposed to auto-lock after a year of inactivity. Just a reminder that JWTalk does not have a discord, telegram, Whatsapp, or any other real time messaging system outside of these forums and the private message system. This is in harmony with the direction to not have chat rooms. We used to, and the branch had us shut it down.

Translation.... Next Thursday, August 8, will be a historic day for Jehovah's Witnesses in Brazil. After five years of waiting, the country's Supreme Court will judge the case regarding the patient's freedom to refuse a blood transfusion. This case will be what we call "general repercussion" in Brazilian law, that is, the decision taken in this trial will serve as the basis for all cases judged going forward. Last week, the president of the Federal Supreme Court allowed both the Watchtower Bible and Treaty Society of Brazil and that of the United States to be invited as amici curiae (friends of the court). This will allow brothers who are part of the branch's commission in Brazil to make oral claims without necessarily being lawyers (in Brazil, only lawyers can make oral claims). Today, it was announced that the trial will be broadcast on state TV throughout the country. We have no doubt that this will be a great testimony. We pray that Jehovah will guide this matter in the best possible way.

I draw the line at Macellan 12. I just can't bring myself to sink even more coin into the Macellan 18. But it is good stuff. I also like Oban.

Think about that word you just used. Our Forum Membership Policy, that you read and accepted prior to joining, says the following... 3) No Misusing JW.org and its Services: The Terms of Use at JW.org makes the statement, "You may not: Misuse the website or its services, such as... accessing the website or its services using a method other than what is explicitly provided." Therefore, do not mine JW.org or it's affiliated services hunting for artwork, literature, or media that hasn't been officially released to the public yet. Spiritual food "is explicitly provided" at the proper time by the Faithful and Discreet Slave (Matthew 24:45) and not by individuals racing to be the ones to present it in place of them (Psalm 11:2). We will not be teaching members and the public how to mine the server, and undermine the Faithful Slave, here in the forums. You can do this privately via PM but we're not allowing it here.